Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Underground Cave System - Landing Party
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Like any good engineer, wires, ties, power, and everything in between, was a new toy to explore and play with. She patted Jasper’s shoulder as she passed him and winked. “Keep an eye on your feet against the stone. That’s all that matters. You’ll do ok… Ignore the others and focus on your feet. Think from an engineering standpoint. ‘Where can I place my foot that most effectively moves me in the direction I want to go, at the safest pace, with the proper placement of weight?’” She smiled once more. “Test your for placement before each step and be alert. Just like climbing in jefferies tubes.”

She hoped the analogies would help as she moved to the edge in hopes of starting hey own descent.

Cross peaked over the edge ‘’Say Lt’’ she told Tia ‘’Back there you just jumped and got back up without being hurt ,can we not do the same here?’’ the doctor asked.

“Unless ye tumble and fall everything works the same. Gravity is just on the wrong side, or our perception of what is the right side is wrong. There doesn’t appear to be a secondary gravity on the roof, but I suggest saving the Human testing for later and simply toss something up next time”

The speculation about the weird gravity and the origin of the city and eggs was all well and good, but as some of his officers were insisting, the hesitation was not to their advantage, and they needed to quickly get down off the ledge. The needed to find a safer position that they could defend, if necessary. Down below was also where they might find some answers. If the Merrimack was still here, she would find them through the static eventually. If she had left, then she had a good reason, and there was nothing they could do about it. “Let’s concentrate right now on getting to the bottom of this cliff without any accidents,” said Glen. “Once we find a less open place to hold up, then we can discuss these things further.” While Glen believed what he said, he could tell that others had some trepidation about going any further down inside. “Now, does everyone like omelette?” Glen joked to lighten the mood.

Cross rolled her eyes ‘’Captain if mother serpent is down there, we’re going to get trapped since the team would not be able to climb back at break-neck speed’’ .

“I’m sure the Merrimack will be able to get a Transporter lock on us before that eventuality, ” Glen replied.

Well since everything she said fell on deaf ears the female doctor strapped the medical kit tightly on her back and started to descend, it was not much of a problem for her since both body and mind were created for this.

Glen let Cross go first, as there was really no stopping her, content that Mthunzi had his eye on her and would stop her getting into too much trouble. As he fell back, he saw Jasper making his scans. “Mr. Ericson,” Glen asked. “What do your scans show about these clusters of ‘eggs’ and the mini city? Are the city dwellers tapping into the eggs in some way by those thin strands of organic root/wire or is it the ‘eggs’ tapping into the city? Or is it a mutually beneficial relationship? And is there any evidence of a ‘mother’, like Cross asserts, that we need to be concerned about?”

Tia had been next in line to descend when Glen spoke to Jasper. Waving the next person to pass her, she stepped closer to Jasper and smiled. “If it’s a power source, we can use it to boost comms, perhaps,” she had the thought and spoke it softly to Jasper as she smiled. “You could be a hero.” She patted his shoulder to reassure him.

Glen passed Jasper and Tia by on the narrow path to catch up with William. He repeated his question about the scan results to him too.

Cross was making good progress and eventually stood on the ground where the eggs lay,she touched her phaser for reassurance that it was still there and started scanning hoping they’ll get more detailed information on what was inside the eggs.

Nkosenye came down close behind her, and then looked up at the assembled security detail. “Secure the perimeter. Stay within visual range of each other at all times. And by all that is holy… Don’t. Touch. Anything.” he said, his voice insinuating the terrors that would befall anyone of his team that failed in that directive.

As the group finally got off the narrow ledge down and made their way through the small minature sized ‘city’ they were in a sense like giants walking through the city. Each footfall in fact seemed to cause tremors which had bits of the earthen made buildings of rock and such lightly dust down with tinier pebbles to the ground (really the ceiling in though due to the laws of physics being switched!) at their feet. The tiny bugs too would scamper like tiny humans in fear of a giant monster. If they had time it would certainly be an interesting course to study the effects they were having on such a tiny possible life or ‘civilization’ such as it was, but naturally they didn’t.

“I can try and use the power source as a booster of sorts but it will be interesting.” As Jasper attempted to try it as a power source to boost the signal of the comlinks.

Scanning for a power source, Jasper didnt find anything right away, but he could tell there was some kind of symbiotic setup of sorts between the large cluster of eggs they were now near, and the organic like wires leading off into the tiny city around them.

As the reached the lower level, the group had more space again. “Like the COS says, let’s not touch anything … not just yet,” Glen told his two enthusiastic engineers. “I’d like some confirmation from Science about the safety of doing that first. William?”

Wills’ hand had been mere centimetres from touching an egg as the Security Chief called out the no touching. He looked back at the Captain quite Sheepishly as he withdrew his hand and took out his scanner, getting as detailed of a scan from the eggs as he could “And whatever you do don’t follow the ships cat” He laughed at his own Alien Joke as he scanned.

“You certainly don’t want to follow my cat anywhere,” Glen replied. “It spends most of it’s days inside the warp coils.”

Will’s scans confirmed those Jasper would find, but more detail in this case came forth due to its specialized nature. It seems the eggs as they were ‘maturing’ for lack of a better term, gave off a geothermic reaction, this EM reaction of heat was being picked up by the wires tied into the shell of the eggs. This then fed through the wires by some form of processing he could not fully make out but it was enough that between him and Jasper putting their heads together they could tell the tiny bug city used it for whatever needs they might have or cook up. How seemingly to them these unintelligent bugs were making a city or ‘using’ such energy though seemed perplexing, perhaps like the laws of physics in here there was a quantum ‘shift’ at work which might allow such a tiny creature to be on the intellect level like themselves? If so a means of communication would be quite complex to devise if at all possible.

In turn it seems whatever matter or function this city served for these bugs, intelligent or not then fed its waste back to the eggs by another set of organic wire lines which coupled now with Cross’s scans the three could confer that the eggs were nourished by this ‘waste’. Quite an interesting setup really.

“It seems that answers my earlier questions somewhat,” said Glen. “These bugs are farming the eggs and there must be some kind of mutual benefit. …I’m not happy with this position as one to defend though, should we actually encounter a ‘Mother of Serpents’ as Cross expects. Can we find somewhere safer, and then we can investigate this ‘micro-civilisation’ in more detail? Right here we are open from every direction.”

‘’They remind me of the bees and ants from back home only those care for their own ‘’ she remarked ‘’While these have other bugs caring for the eggs, at least that’s how it seems ‘’ Cross gave a quick look around ‘’Why do they stay in a state of hibernation upon light?’’ the doctor asked anyone who could come up with a hypothesis .

‘’Maybe there is some source of light that these bugs have learned to stay still for their own survival?’’ again she looked further into the darkness, her vibrant and intense red eyes sparkled as a light from one of the torches passed briskly across her face .

Cross Dr.

OOC: Any replies please do ABOVE this ooc note first please! Confer as you wish for a bit, the below will happen roughly a few minutes after/during your discussion of what to do or think but before you can implement anything you may plan, so please take note of this!

No sooner had the group been confiding on different ideas/thoughts when just left of Cross’s left foot there was a faint cracking sound, this was echoed by three more similar sounds elsewhere, then 5 more shortly after. All the sounds were originating among the pile of the eggs, faint slivers of what might be energy or light peeking out in bits and pieces from the eggs.

Nearby at the same time the activity of the small tiny city around them seemed to come alive, the bugs formerly more leisurely moving about when no light was on them seemed to move at almost a flurry of activity! Bugs were seen going up or down the buildings, others chewing away at the small 3ft tall building foundations, and yet more swarming past the away team or over their boots to began to burrow under the egg cluster! Cross’s scans would show that to what she might make out the eggs were ‘hatching’ for lack of a better term.

Also at this time from one of the largest tunnels south (actually north), of their position opposite that which they came in from, a quite towering snake like creature silently slithered from the 8ft round tunnel, how it moved so silently or quietly was anyone’s guess! However, it quickly took note of the team and paused a quarter way out of the tunnel to peer at the seeming invaders to its ‘nest’. The raven black scaled snake creature, hissed with an echoing loud quality that surely didnt sound ‘happy’ or ‘pleased’. As if to answer this the creatures pair of 1ft round eyes glowed a deep red and suddenly shot out what seemed some kind of lancing energy beam! One of which struck NE Tu’young who had but a second to scream in pain before being vaporized!

GM CockRoach